Broomfield – After committing more than $3 billion in cash and stock on a half-dozen acquisitions over the past year, the dealmaking may be done for Level 3 Communications.

“I won’t say we’re on hold, but it would take an awfully attractive opportunity to get us to do anything,” Level 3 chief executive James Q. Crowe said Monday. “We’re going to want to make sure we properly integrate the acquisitions we’ve made before we take on anything else.”

During a wide-ranging interview from the company’s headquarters, Crowe touched on subjects including bankruptcy concerns during the tech bust, the company’s recovery and what he believes will be the key drivers for network-capacity demand over the next few years.

Level 3 operates a global fiber-optic communications network, providing high-speed Internet access and related services to a number of companies, such as the Hershey Co. and YouTube.com. The company employs 2,000 in Colorado and 6,000 worldwide.

“We believe that the next five years are about two things: wireless and content,” said Crowe, 57. “We will be building our network further and further out to be more wireless- and content-friendly.”

Demand for video content, especially through cellphones, will surge, and Level 3, through its recent acquisitions, is positioned to capitalize, Crowe said.

Analysts and investors agree.

“They certainly have the network capacity in all the key markets they really need,” said Jonathan Schildkraut, an analyst with Jefferies & Co.

The stock once traded for more than $100 a share during the late 1990s. But then the tech bubble burst.

“We didn’t see it coming,” Crowe said. “About the only thing we did was panic early. We reacted very early compared with many.”

From 2000 to early 2005, the company focused on restructuring the balance sheet, cost-cutting and shifting its sales focus, Crowe said.

The recovery plan was coined “Project Archimedes,” after the Greek mathematician credited with discovering a system of pulleys used to lift heavy loads.

“We were the first (telecom) company to come out and lower guidance,” said Kevin O’Hara, Level 3’s president and chief operating officer. “The reaction to that announcement was pretty brutal.”

Despite the financial struggles during the bust, the company never participated in questionable practices such as those surrounding fiber-optic capacity swaps involving other telecommunications companies, O’Hara said.

“The opportunities to participate in swaps, which as you know created all kinds of problems for the industry … those opportunities were presented to Level 3,” O’Hara said.

The company had deep pockets, about $10 billion in cash, to allow it to get through the tough times. Major investors include Walter Scott Jr., a construction magnate from Omaha and Level 3’s chairman.

“Because Level 3 has some real backers, the company has, in my mind, access to what is nearly an infinite supply of capital,” Schildkraut said. “Where other companies went bust because they couldn’t get any other capital to fund their business plans, which still needed more money, Level 3 had a large cash position coupled with a market which allowed them to refinance their debt on a regular basis.”

By 2005, “many of the things that we’d hoped would happen earlier started to happen,” Crowe said.

The company has acquired four “metro fiber” companies, or firms with fiber-optic connections into buildings in major metro areas. Last month, the company announced it would acquire Broadwing, described as a “mini-Level 3” with more enterprise customers.

“A dollar’s worth of revenue is worth more on our network and in our hands than it is stand-alone,” Crowe said. “That’s the reason we’ve been pretty acquisitive.”

Crowe said the company, which has yet to post a profit, could generate free cash flow early in 2008.

“We’re having a pretty good 2006,” O’Hara said. “We’re pretty happy with where we are.”

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